Celebrating the Gullah/Geechee Literacy Legacy! Join the Gullah/Geechee Read In!

Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ January 19, 2015 ♦ 6 Comments

The theme for Black History Month 2015 is “A Century of Black Life, History and Culture” which centers on chronicling the important contributions by African Americans to art, literature, sports and pop culture.   During the month of February, schools, churches, libraries, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens are urged to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting an African American Read-In.  The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition is a host organization and will host “GullahGeechee Read Ins” online via Gullah/Geechee Riddim Radio by having a number of readings from works in the Gullah/Geechee Alkebulan Archive which is the ONLY archive in the world totally dedicated to Gullah/Geechee history, heritage, and culture.

Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) will also present from her own books and others on the Gullah/Geechee Read In booklist at her appearances:

• Saturday, February 7, 2015 at 3 pm “Gullah/Geechee Read In Book Launch at Uhuru Books“

4153 Rivers Avenue Unit B North Charleston, SC 29405

• Saturday, February 28, 2015 at Noon “St. Helena Black History Month Celebration” 

St. Helena Branch Library St. Helena Island SC

She will also do readings and conduct reading circles with students at numerous schools and daycares in the Gullah/Geechee Nation.  (To book one at your institution, email GullGeeCo@aol.com or go to www.QueenQuet.com).

The Gullah/Geechee Read In Titles for 2015 are:

• “The Legacy of Ibo Landing: Gullah Roots of African American Culture” edited by Marquetta L. Goodwine which can be purchased from www.gullahgeechee.biz.

• Any “Gullah/Geechee: Africa’s Seeds in the Winds of the Diaspora” title from www.gullahgeechee.biz.  If you purchase a Kindle version, please search from http://smile.amazon.com and use the “Gullah/Geechee Angel Network“ as your charity.

• “Mama Day” by Gloria Naylor

• “Copper Sun” (youth and adult reading) by Sharon M. Draper

• “Talkin to the Dead” by LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant

• “Ebony Sea” (children) by Irene Smalls

• “The Water Brought Us” (youth) by Muriel Miller Branch

• “When Roots Die” by Patricia Jones-Jackson

• “Lorenzo Dow Turner: Father of Gullah Studies” by Margaret Wade Lewis

In addition to the Gullah/Geechee titles above, all participants are encouraged to read:

• “The Miseducation of the Negro” by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the Founder of Black History Week which is now Black history month.

If you purchase any of the aforementioned works from Amazon,please search from http://smile.amazon.com and use the “Gullah/Geechee Angel Network” as your charity.

Please register your participation by inboxing the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition on Facebook or emailing GullGeeCo@aol.com with your name, email address, and book(s) that you are reading. Also, post images on the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition Facebook page of you reading your books from the list.   Make sure to tune in to Gullah/Geechee Riddim Radio on Mondays at 7 pm EST to call in and share readings from the books and to learn more of the historical background of the books.

The Gullah/Geechee Nation has a history of literacy being continued on the Sea Islands and throughout the region even after literacy amongst people of African descent became illegal due to the 1740 Slave Code.  Gullah/Geechees continued to teach one another in the fields and at clandestine meetings under the cover of night due chattel enslavement.  These grew into secret schools that operated.   This continued fight for literacy led to the first public schools in America beginning in the Gullah/Geechee Nation and the first “trade, agricultural, and normal school for freedmen” being established on St. Helena Island and having success from 1862 to 1954 when students left the tuition based missionary school to go to the free St. Helena School.  St. Helena School graduated many successful Gullah/Geechees that have become known nationally and internationally and that still celebrate literacy.  Amongst them is author, computer scientist, and mathematician, Queen Quet herself.  She is truly looking forward to sharing one of her favorite pastimes with the public during the “Gullah/Geechee Read In!”